[Jimbaux would like for you to wake him up when September ends.]
Summer Has Come And Passed
What’s good, my dear Jimbauxlings? I did indeed take several pictures in the last week of September, but due to my big focus on getting the 9/11 project done and published (and I still haven’t finished the compilation post), in addition to other things that demanded my attention, I just haven’t had the time to publish them until now.
Wake Me Up When September Ends
There are 19 pictures in this post taken on five days. The first, third, and fifth (last) day were of stuff on the New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway in Gretna, Louisiana, meaning that the other two are bracketed by NOGC shots. Remember that caption information for each picture can be found in the filenames, which can be read by holding one’s mouse over the pictures.
We’ve Been Here Before
We’ll start with what has become a very common view here on Jimbaux’s Journal, a view of a parked NOGC train waiting at the western throat of Goulsboro Yard with the Greater New Orleans Bridges in the background. However, this shot is different in two ways. First, there is the presence of the Canadian Pacific hoppers in this train. Second, the background skies are cloudy!
Well, that was different and simultaneously the same.
The Innocent Can Never Last
Here’s something different, a new shot I’ve never done before. This is the westbound Sunset Limited leaving New Orleans on a Monday.
Man, that would be a good place to go to school, right?
If the RailBaron were here, he’d find this location to be familiar.
Actually, there are only two trains that pass on this track during daylight, and they’re both passenger trains. This is the old KCS mainline.
Back Belt
A few minutes and a few miles later, there’s a meet going down on the NS Back Belt at Bayou Saint John.
Do you see the crew of the westbound on the ground to give the eastbound a rollby?
Judging by the power consist of that westbound, it could be any one of four or five westbound interchange trains that arrives at the Union Pacific from the two big eastern railroads.
Street-Running On The W’ank on Madison Street
Here we go back to the NOGC one fine afternoon, as I once-again caught the train from Belle Chasse about to enter Goulsboro Yard.
‘Twould be an interesting view if you were a kid on those swings, wouldn’t it?
I just love this operation. I really do. It’s so neat, so rare, so cool. I know that I’m fortunate to be able to occasionally witness it.
Now, we see a going-away shot of this unusually long train from Belle Chasse as the head end exits Madison Street and enters Goulsboro Yard with the CCC bridges looming in the rear.
Well, that was a pleasant little diversion, wasn’t it? I think so.
Four Railroads, Two Countries
Well, here’s something quite different, seen at the New Orleans Public Belt Railway’s France Yard one afternoon.
Yes, we have Union Pacific Railway (railroad #1) train QLIWX (Livonia, La., to Waycross, Ga.) a few hundred feet away from arriving on CSX Railway (railroad #2) rails at Gentilly Yard on trackage of the New Orleans Public Belt Railway (railroad #3) with an NOPB crew led by a Ferromex (railroad #4) locomotive. How’s that?
In the below view, he’s going through the floodgate, preparing to make a 90 degree turn to get on CSX tracks and cross the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal just like the I-10 bridge that looms in the background.
At the left frame of the picture, you can see the track it will traverse and the track with which it will merge, the CSX mainline. At right, you can see the top of the superstructure of the drawbridge it will pass through.
Sundown On 4th Street in Gretna
I was having some drinks with some of my woadies in Gretna on the afternoon of Friday 30 September when I heard locomotives horns. I told one of my homies to watch my beer as I sprinted to my truck to haul tail a few blocks over to get set up in the Subway parking lot.
What I was really trying to do was improve the shot I did from the Subway parking lot a few weeks ago, and what I realized after those shots was that I needed to get a little closer to the subject matter, in this case a few parking spaces closer to the train, than I was that time.
I was trying to get on the tangent of that little stretch of straight track between those short curves, but as you can see, by this late in the day, the shadows are too long.
Oh, well, what are you going to do in this case? What are you going to do when the part of the track where you want the train to be is in shadows? You wait a few more seconds and do the best you can otherwise.
Here he is going away, passing Dolhonde Street, not far before he gets off the ex-SP trackage and gets back on the ex-T&P trackage at about the right frame of the picture.
I have no idea what’s happening in the below picture; so, the best way I can interpret it is to say that it’s a case of “it is” being what “it is.”
That this is the train from Belle Chasse – as opposed to the “local” out of Gouldsboro Yard — is evident by the fact that these pipe gondolas are not only empty but also at the rear of the train, meaning that it was picked up on the head end of the train when it passed Fort St. Leon.
Well, that’s really about all that we have time for today; so, we’ll have one last shot.
After that, I went back to see my whoadies, some of whom didn’t quite understand why I suddenly left the scene, especially with a glass of beer sitting on the table.
There was a dog there.
That’s cute.
New Coverage For the NOLA Post
A few hours after I took the above seven pictures on the NOGC in Gretna, I was at Tad Gormley Stadium on assignment for a new era in the NOLA Post of coverage of high school football, and here are the results. What think thou?
Lately, many Jimbaux’s Journal readers have been commenting on the NOLA Post, and many comment in the same style in which they comment on Jimbaux’s Journal, in second person addressed to me. Please remember that the NOLA Post is a depersonalized site, and it’s written in third person for a reason. I am loathe to tell people how to comment on things, but I’d like for you, when commenting on the NOLA Post, to not do so in second person, which is very acceptable and welcome here on Jimbaux’s Journal! Oh, while we’re on the subject, please refrain from using profanities when commenting. You can say what you need to say without using such words.
Furthermore, the fact that the NOLA Post covers a certain issue, like the Occupy New Orleans protesters marching on Thursday, is merely that: coverage. It’s not meant to be interpreted as my taking a stand on an issue one way or the other.
The NOGC And A Steam Locomotive Make the NOLA Post
Because it was a news event that that catered to people other than just foamers, photographers, and Jimbauxlings, the move of the Southern Pacific 745 on its way to Gretna Fest made the NOLA Post. You can see from the comments in that article, though, that the commenters used second person. Anyway, I hope that I did a good job of explaining to the general public what a wye is and what was happening in the picture. I took several more pictures that day than just the four that you see, but I’ll post those here on Jimbaux’s Journal later.
Site News
Thanks, everyone, for your readership as well as your participation in Jimbaux’s Journal, especially for the month of September, which, as I had predicted, was a record month for readership for both sites combined.
Each month seems to set a new record for page impressions for both the NOLA Post and Jimbaux’s Journal combined (because I can’t or don’t see which page impressions are coming from what site. Yes, I know that there’s a way for me to know all of that, but I just don’t care that much.)
Anyway, we’ve surpassed the 10,000 mark for page impressions in September, thanks largely to the 9/11 project, even though I haven’t even promoted the yet-to-be-finished compilation post on that subject.
Here, again, are the August statistics.
7,512 Page Impressions 7 Ad Clicks $3.78 in ad revenue
Now, here are the September statistics.
10,552 Page Impressions 8 Ad Clicks $4.73 in ad revenue
Well, how’s that? Yeah, I still have never taken delivery of any of that advertisement money, since it wouldn’t even cover web-hosting, which I still pay out of pocket. I ask you to please support the advertisers, and, if you don’t mind helping me increase readership, please let anyone else you know who might like this site about it.
Anyway, my recent focus on the NOLA Post is one of several reasons why I haven’t had time for Jimbaux’s Journal in more than a week, but it’s not the only one. Anyway, remember that if you like what you see here, the best way to keep up with updates is to join the Facebook fan page by clicking on the badge below and then clicking “Like” when logged into Facebook.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed the 19 pictures presented here in this post. Comments, as always, are welcome, as are private messages, though I’ve once again developed a an e-mail backlog.
Thanks, again, everyone.
Jimbaux
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I love the first pic with the swingset. The context really speaks.